Nedîm

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Nedîm (نديم) (1681?–1730) was the pen name (Ottoman Turkish: ﻡﺨﻠﺺ mahlas) of one of the most celebrated Ottoman poets. He achieved his greatest fame during the Ottoman Empire's 1718–1730 Tulip Era, and both his life and his work are often seen as being representative of the spirit of that time.

[edit] Life

Nedîm, whose real name was Ahmed (أحمد), was born in Istanbul sometime around the year 1681. His father, Mehmed Efendi, had served as a chief military judge (قاضسکر kazasker) during the reign of the Ottoman sultan İbrâhîm I. At an early age, Nedîm began his studies in a medrese, where he learned the Arabic and Persian languages. After completing his studies, he went on to work as a scholar of Islamic law.

In an attempt to gain recognition as a poet, Nedîm wrote several kasîdes, or panegyric poems, dedicated to ‘Alî Pasha, the Ottoman Grand Vizier from 1713 to 1716; however, it was not until—again through kasîdes—he managed to impress the subsequent Grand Vizier, Nevşehirli Dâmâd İbrâhîm Pasha, that he managed to gain a foothold in the Ottoman palace. Henceforth, Nedîm became very close to the Grand Vizier, who effectively served as his sponsor under the Ottoman patronage system. İbrâhîm Pasha's viziership coincided with the Ottoman Tulip Era, a time known both for its aesthetic achievements and its decadence. Nedîm himself is said to have fervently participated in this atmosphere, and it is thought that he may have been an alcoholic and a drug user, most likely of opium.

It is known that Nedîm died in 1730 during the Janissary revolt initiated by Patrona Halil, but there are conflicting stories as to the manner of his death. The most popular account has him falling to his death from the roof of his home in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul while attempting to escape from the insurgents. Another story, however, claims that he died as a result of excessive drinking, while a third story relates how Nedîm—terrified by the tortures enacted upon İbrâhîm Pasha and his retinue—suddenly died of fright. Nedîm is buried in the Üsküdar district of Istanbul.

[edit] Work

Introductory page from the Dîvân-ı Nedîm, Nedîm's collected works

Nedîm is now generally considered, along with Fuzûlî and Bâkî, to be one of the three greatest poets in the Ottoman Divan poetry tradition. It was not, however, until relatively recently that he came to be seen as such: in his own time, for instance, the title of reîs-i şâirân (رئيس شاعران), or "president of poets", was given by Sultan Ahmed III not to Nedîm, but to the now relatively obscure poet Osmanzâde Tâib, and several other poets as well were considered superior to Nedîm in his own day. This relative lack of recognition may have had something to do with the sheer newness of Nedîm's work, much of which was rather radical for its time.

In his kasîdes and occasional poems—written for the celebration of holidays, weddings, victories, circumcisions, and the like—Nedîm was, for the most part and with some exceptions, a fairly traditional poet: he used many Arabic and Persian loan words, and employed much the same patterns of imagery and symbolism that had driven the Divan tradition for centuries. It was, however, in his songs (şarkı) and some of his gazels that Nedîm showed his most innovativeness, in terms of both content and language.

Nedîm's major innovation in terms of content was his open celebration of the city of Istanbul. This can be seen, for example, in the opening couplet (beyit) of his "Panegyric for İbrâhîm Pasha in Praise of Istanbul" (İstanbul'u vasıf zımnında İbrâhîm Paşa'a kasîde):

بو شهر ستنبول كه بىمشل و بهادر

بر سنگکه يكپاره عجم ملک فداءدر

Bu şehr-i Sıtanbûl ki bî-misl-ü behâdır

Bir sengine yekpâre Acem mülkü fedâdır^[1]

O city of Istanbul, priceless and peerless!

I would sacrifice all Persia for one of your stones!^[2]

Moreover, in contrast to the high degree of abstraction used by earlier poets, Nedîm was fond of the concrete, and makes reference in much of his poetry to specific Istanbul districts and places and even to contemporary clothing fashions, as in the following stanza from one of his songs:

سرملى گوزلو گوزل يوزلو غزالان آنده

زر کمرلى بلى خنجرلى جوانان آنده

باخصوص آرادهم سرو خرامان آنده

نيج آقميا گوﯖل صو گبى سعدآباده

Sürmeli gözlü güzel yüzlü gazâlân anda

Zer kemerli beli hancerli cüvânân anda

Bâ-husûs aradığım serv-i hırâmân anda

Nice akmaya gönül su gibi Sa'd-âbâd'a^[3]

There are kohl-eyed fresh-faced gazelles there

There are gold-belted khanjar-hipped young people there

And of course my love's swaying cypress body is there

Why shouldn't the heart flow like water towards Sa'd-âbâd?

These lines also highlight Nedîm's major innovation in terms of language; namely, not only are they a song—a style of verse normally associated with Turkish folk literature and very little used by previous Divan poets—but they also use a grammar and, especially, a vocabulary that is as much Turkish as it is Arabic or Persian, another aspect not much seen in Divan poetry of that time or before.

[edit] References

[edit] Notes